What to Watch: Week six of the college wrestling season

Week six of the college wrestling season is here, and things are picking back up after the Thanksgiving break. It’s time to hit the mat again with some big events on the schedule. For college wrestling fans, there’s plenty of action to keep you connected this week. Here’s a look at a few events coming up in week six.

The 42nd annual Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational brings together 30 competitive programs for one of the most thrilling tournaments of the collegiate wrestling season. Teams from across the country, including Appalachian State, Arizona State, Binghamton, Cal Poly, California Baptist, Columbia, Cornell, CSU Bakersfield, Harvard, Hofstra, Iowa State, Michigan, Navy, NC State, Nebraska, Northern Iowa, Northwestern, Ohio, Ohio State, Oklahoma State, Oregon State, Purdue, Rider, Sacred Heart, South Dakota State, Stanford, Utah Valley, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, and Wyoming, will compete at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. Action begins at 12:00 p.m. ET on Friday, and carries into Saturday afternoon.

Friday, December 6
Session I (12:00 p.m. ET)
- Championship Pig Tails, Round of 32, Round of 16
- Consolation Round of 32, Round of 16 #1, Round of 16 #2

Session II (9 p.m. ET)
- Championship Quarterfinals
- Consolation Round of 8 #1, Round of 8 #2

Saturday, December 7
Session III (1 p.m. ET)
- Championship Semifinals
- Consolation Semifinals, 5th and 7th Place Matches

Session IV (6 p.m. ET)
- Championship Finals
- Consolation Finals

The No. 28 Hoosiers and the No. 11 Fighting Illini will compete at the first-ever Big Ten Takedown alongside the 2024 Discover Big Ten Football Championship Game featuring Penn State and Oregon. The event is the first Big Ten dual of the season for any teams in the conference, and will take place in the Indiana Convention Center. Both teams are undefeated at this point in the season, with Indiana holding a 4-0 record while Illinois is 5-0. Illinois has recorded three wins over ranked opponents this season: No. 21 Arizona State, No. 6 Missouri and No. 23 North Carolina.

No. 1 Penn State heads to Allentown, Pennsylvania, this weekend to take on No. 21 Lehigh. The Nittany Lions are 1-0 with a victory over Drexel early in the season. Penn State is coming off of the Black Knight Invitational, where Nittany Lions picked up nine of the ten individual titles. Their lineup features ten ranked wrestlers, including NCAA champions Levi Haines, Carter Starocci and Greg Kerkvliet. Lehigh enters the matchup with a 1-1 record after opening its season with a victory over Morgan State before falling to Pittsburgh in November. There are six nationally ranked wrestlers in the Mountain Hawks’ lineup, led by No. 1 Ryan Crookham at 133 pounds. The event begins at 2 p.m. ET inside the PPL Center, and can be streamed live on FloWrestling.

One of the most anticipated women’s college wrestling duals of the season takes place this weekend in Illinois when Grand Valley State travels to North Central. This match up features quite a few ranked wrestlers, with the full expected lineup listed below. Grand Valley State is in its inaugural season at the helm of Jake Short, and holds a 1-0 record with a win over Northern Michigan. North Central is 7-0 at this point in the season, with wins over No. 1 King, No. 4 McKendree, No. 8 Sacred Heart and No. 11 Schreiner at the Adrian Duals in early November. As one of the key events of the weekend, this will be a dual that college wrestling fans won’t want to miss.

Grand Valley State (NCAA, D2), 1-0 vs North Central (NCAA, D3), 7-0
103: #5 Rayana Sahagun (GVSU), JR vs #6 Maddie Avila (NCC), JR
110: #1 Sage Mortimer (GVSU), JR vs #4 Kendra Ryan (NCC), SR
117: Ana Malovich (GVSU), FR vs #2 Sydney Petzinger (NCC), SR
124: #4 Aspen Blasko (GVSU), FR vs #1 Amani Jones (NCC), SR
131: Hannah Palise (GVSU), JR vs #1 Sara Sterner (NCC), SR
138: #2 Katie Lange (GVSU), JR vs Emma Grimm (NCC), SR
145: #5 Elleni Jonson (GVSU), FR vs #4 Bella Mir (NCC), SO
160: Claire Agostini (GVSU), JR vs #9 Tiera Jimerson (NCC), SR
180: #2 Sabrina Nauss (GVSU), FR vs Brittyn Corbishley (NCC), SR
207: Aaliyah Grandberry (GVSU), FR vs #2 Traeh Haynes (NCC), SR

No. 25 William Jewell is set to host the Jewell Dual Tournament in Liberty, Missouri. Teams featured are No. 1 Iowa, No. 7 Lindenwood, Fort Hays State, Missouri Baptist and Lyon. The format is a round robin tournament where each team will wrestle. Action begins at 10 a.m. local time at the Mabee Center. Live results will be available on trackwrestling.com for fans to keep up with all of the action.